Del Potter, Ph.D.
Del Potter received his PhD in 1980 from a joint program with UCSF Medical School and UC Berkeley Anthropology in medical anthropology, specializing in psychiatric anthropology, ethno psychopharmacology, and neuropharmacology, and received further clinical training at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. He conducted post-doctoral research to examine the cross-cultural psychohistory of shamanic practitioners and indigenous psychotherapeutic practice. His research also focused on the use of psilocybin mushrooms, and Salvia divinorum, among the Mazatec in central Mexico, Ayahuasca, Yage and Yopo ceremony and ritual among the Shuar in Ecuador, among the Yanomami people in Brazil and the Cofán in Colombia. He contributed to Richard Evans Schultes worldwide examination of psychotropic botanicals. Subsequent research focused on the phytochemistry and analytical chemistry of indigenous shamanic formulations and botanicals.
Dr. Potter developed a relationship with Dr. Alexander Shulgin which led to a mentorship over a year’s time. Dr. Shulgin directed him to novel chemistry of tryptamines in the genre class of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. He continued to develop a robust portfolio of novel chemical entities comprised of similar short acting tryptamine compounds in those genre classes, compounds with agonism at serotonergic, sigma and dopamine receptors, at 5HT2a and 5HT1a, and compounds that have partial or biased agonism at those receptors, without a psychedelic effect, but that still retain the neuroplasticity and neurogenesis associated with functional activity at those receptors. He continues to expand on this portfolio, to provide rapid preclinical screening of the pharmacology of new compounds, development of precision medicine pharmacological approaches around the predictability of the durability of pharmacological treatment.
Dr. Potter joined Leef Holdings as Chief Science Officer in 2016 to design and implement the largest commercially scaled, fully automated medical cannabis manufacturing enterprise in California, which is widely recognized to be the most technologically advanced facility of its kind with inputs and final outputs moving through one production line, and receiving awards for safety and design. The facility was used as a model for safety and engineering by the California Association of Fire Marshalls. Dr. Potter developed product lines for products using distilled cannabis oil vape cartridges, cannabis edibles, all hydrocarbon derived cannabis product forms, and solventless derived cannabis products. He developed instrumentation, custom equipment and infrastructure for all these products. During the design process, he developed new patented proprietary technology to remediate color and pesticides
In 2019 Dr. Potter founded Aya Biosciences as Chief Science Officer to develop novel cannabis and psychedelic pharmaceutical therapeutics, producing cannabinoid-based formulations for sleep, pain relief and appetite suppression. He created a cannabinoid-based formulations for sleep, pain relief and appetite suppression that were successfully examined in nonclinical models. Working with 3M, Dr. Potter developed cannabinoid-based transdermal patch delivery formulations for sleep that were successfully examined internally in self-reported clinical sleep studies.
Dr. Potter consulted with the team at Alvarius Pharmaceuticals in 2020 as Chief Science Officer where he directed their preclinical and clinical program for a first-in-man, investigatory initiated study conducted at UCSF to assess patient tolerability and obtain data on the PK of IM delivery of Alvarius’ primary pipeline candidate, 5-MeO-DMT, and a phase 1 clinical trial of the same compound at Trinity College, Dublin, using PK and PD data from the IM delivery to construct pre gastric delivery strategies and oral formulations for this compound including fast dissolving sublingual tablets, gel film strips and transdermal patches. He worked with Tioga Research (https://www.tiogaresearch.com), Catalent (https://www.catalent.com) and IntelgenX (https://www.intelgenx.com).
Dr. Potter worked with Dr. Keith Murphy at University College, Dublin to develop and validate the use of human stem cell derived brain organoids to examine the epigenetic cellular changes caused by exposure to drugs of abuse, particularly cocaine, and other mental health disorders and the ability of psychedelic compounds to reverse those cellular neuronal changes, including strategies for the use of brain organoids as a preclinical screening model to assess the therapeutic efficacy of small molecule compounds, to examine biomarkers that represent and are most predictive of epigenetic cellular changes caused by substance abuse and other CNS indications as well as their reversal, and to screen clinical populations for drug effects. He researched the development of novel psychedelic chemical entities using AI modeling that directly address the reversal of the above-mentioned biomarkers as a drug discovery platform. One facet of that research included the validation of the brain organoid model using conventional rodent models of substance abuse, such as cue extinction with alcohol, cocaine and heroin as well as with animal models of depression.
Dr. Potter consulted with Pangea Botanica in 2022, a company focused on using AI modeling to assess the potential of botanicals for pharmaceutical products worldwide. He assisted with the construction of a supply chain for the botanical Salvia divinorum, used in Mazatec ceremonies in and with construction of a proof-of-concept laboratory in the village of Huatla de Jimenez in the Sierra Madre north of Oaxaca to collect ethnobotanical information from local healers. Those botanicals are currently undergoing metabolomic and algorithmic analysis to assess botanical actives.
zon 2023, Dr. Potter founded Spiritus Bioscience focused on final form delivery and formulation of psychedelic compounds. Through formulation and delivery technology, Dr. Potter is contouring the psychedelic experience to be more targeted, safer, and with less adverse effects. Starting with drug delivery products for Psilocin, DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, he is developing pre gastric final forms include metered oral sublingual spray, rapidly dissolving sublingual wafer, buccal film, inhaler medical device, and transdermal patches. The first of these products, a sublingual, oral mucosal spray of psilocin will be examined in clinical trials in Australia. The proposed Phase 2b trial will target Alcohol Use Disorder.
Dr. Potter is currently engaged with Cellexion Labs as founder and Chief Science Officer, a DTC company focused on alternative delivery strategies for bioactive peptide compounds using intradermal and sublingual delivery strategies and the development of new peptide compounds for health, functional medicine and longevity. Dr. Potter is also researching the intersection of psychedelics and peptides and developing protocols for using peptide compounds with psychedelics to ease the transition to an energetic state, reduce adverse effects, reinforce neural plasticity and to improve therapeutic outcomes. He presented “Exploring the Synergies: Psychedelics, Bioactive Peptides, Mental Health and Longevity” at the Biohacker Summit in Helsinki in 2024.